David Goldman/AP Photo
Soldiers with the 506th Infantry Regiment, a unit of the 101st Airborne Division, begin the first leg of their return home, boarding a plane at a forward base in Paktika province.
David Goldman/AP Photo
Soldiers with the 506th Infantry Regiment, a unit of the 101st Airborne Division, begin the first leg of their return home, boarding a plane at a forward base in Paktika province.
Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images
A US soldier from the Third Brigade passes an Afghan family outside their mudhouse during a joint security patrol with Afghan National Army soldiers in Kandalay village on Aug. 4.
Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images
A US medic, accompanied by an interpreter, examines a captured Taliban suspect, who is awaiting interrogation at the Forward Operating Base Pasab in Zahri district.
David Goldman/AP Photo
Villager Juma Khan meets with the provincial district governor and fellow villagers at a shura, or consultation, on July 23 at the US Marine Patrol Base Salaam Bazaar in Helmand province, Afghanistan. As mentors with the international coalition attempt to phase out their involvement and put Afghan institutions in the lead, the Taliban continue to gain strength in many of Helmand’s northern communities, where legitimate Afghan governance is more of a plan than a reality.
Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images
A U.S. medic checked a boy’s eyes on a helicopter en route to a hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Tuesday. The boy was wounded after stepping on an improvised explosive device.
Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. Spc. Joshua Schonert lit a cigarette Friday as he prepared for the day after dawn attacks by Taliban insurgents on their checkpoint in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Ahmad Massoud/Xinhua/Zuma Press
Children played in the shell of a vehicle in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday.
Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images
Afghan President Hamid Karzai (C) is flanked by vice presidents Mohammad Qasim Fahim (L) and Mohammed Karim Khalili (R) as he addresses media representatives at The Presidential Palace in Kabul on May 2, 2011. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that the killing of Osama Bin Laden in neighbouring Pakistan proved Kabul’s long-standing position that the war on terror was not rooted in Afghanistan.
Chris Hondros/Getty Images
Lance Cpl. Josh Yang of Fullerton, CA, exercised at a makeshift gym at a combat outpost set up in the ruins of an old Afghan palace in southern Helmand province. The Marines call the gym, outfitted with plywood, pipes and sandbags, their version of Venice Breach.
Chris Hondros/Getty Images
A soldier with the 1-71 Cavalry stretches before exercising at the Dand District government center where he is based June 10, 2010 in Dand District of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan.
Chris Hondros/Getty Images
Lt. Michael Thompson of the 1-71 Cavalry eats breakfast before leading an early-morning foot patrol at Tarnac outpost June 13, 2010 in rural Dand District, just south of Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Chris Hondros/Getty Images
An American soldier makes his way through a wheat field during a foot patrol June 13, 2010 in rural Dand District, just south of Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Tim Hetherington/Panos Pictures
An exhausted American soldier. September 2007. This was the World Press Photo of the Year.
Tim Hetherington/Panos Pictures
Sgt. Aaron Hijar of the Army in Afghanistan. July 2008.
Tim Hetherington/Panos Pictures
Taking cover from dust from a helicopter delivering supplies to Restrepo base in Korangal valley. September 2007.
